In many pediatric cases, orthodontic aligners may be used before all of the patient's permanent teeth have completely erupted. For instance, an orthodontic treatment plan may call for use of removable orthodontic aligners on a pediatric patient even though the patient has un-erupted or partially erupted teeth. In such cases, the orthodontic aligner may need to be designed to accommodate the un-erupted or partially erupted teeth. While conventional techniques make it possible to predict the size of an un-erupted or partially erupted tooth with a high degree of accuracy, conventional techniques are presently unable to predict the shape of such a tooth. In the absence of such a prediction, orthodontic aligners currently create a space buffer or cavity in the shape of a generic tooth (e.g., a tooth shape that was observed to fit over a sample size of observed teeth) that can be positioned above the point at which the permanent tooth will erupt.
While convenient in some instances, conventional techniques may present numerous challenges. For instance, a conventional space buffer or cavity having a generic tooth shape may not look “natural” in the context of an un-erupted or partially erupted tooth it is positioned over. As another example, a conventional space buffer or cavity having a generic tooth shape may come into contact with an un-erupted or partially erupted tooth, and as a result, may interrupt tooth eruption and/or cause discomfort. For these and other reasons, the systems, methods, and/or computer-readable media discussed herein are provided.